Hi,
This is my first post! I would like to thank anybody who offers their advice in advance. Our dog recently bit our 8 month old baby just above the eye (if it were any lower at all it would have been his eye). The injury bleed and was bad enough that we took him to the doctor to have it checked out (no stiches were required, just antibiotics). It left 3 small puncture wounds. Our baby was simply crawling over toward my wife while the dog was in her lap and he snapped at the baby. This was the first time that he has bit the baby, but he has growled at him a couple of times in the past when he thought the baby was getting too close to some potential food crumbs.
The dog is a Miniature Pincher who is approximately six years old and has been in our family for about 5 years now. We adopted him from a Min Pin rescue group. He has always been very excitable, and sometimes aggressive. He has bit several friends and extended family members (I can think of 6 off the top of my head). Several times he has actually drawn blood. Usually, he is being protective (or possessive?) of my wife and he kind of snaps at people when this happens. One time he relentlessly went after my wife's uncle and was very scary and aggressive. The dog just came into the room and went after him without warning. He also gets nervous and continuously barks at people when they come over to our house, unless they are brave enough to make an effort to make friends with him. If we lock him in another room, he will bark nonstop until they leave. He also acts the same way toward other dogs. He barks most dogs and other people that he sees when we take him on walks. He listens pretty well when it is just my wife and I (and our baby), but when somebody new is around he is so excited and nervous acting that he simply can't hear us.
We have tried a series of training classes, all the advice we could find in books and online, a spray collar, veterinarian prescribed medication to calm him, and everything else that you could dream of. We thought he would mellow out as he aged, but if anything his aggressive behavior seems to be getting worse.
From a rational perspective, it is obvious that we should get rid of our dog and find a more suitable home for him (i.e. one without young children). However, we see our dog as a member of our family (although, we do not pretend our dog is another person...he is our beloved dog). My wife especially is having a very difficult time thinking about giving our dog away. Is there any hope that we can successfully train our dog, or is this just who he is? To complicate matters, we have a small house and we are having to keep our dog locked up for the most part right now to keep our baby safe. This would make it very difficult to train our dog when he is locked up most of the time.
Thanks again for your advice!
Wildcat
This is my first post! I would like to thank anybody who offers their advice in advance. Our dog recently bit our 8 month old baby just above the eye (if it were any lower at all it would have been his eye). The injury bleed and was bad enough that we took him to the doctor to have it checked out (no stiches were required, just antibiotics). It left 3 small puncture wounds. Our baby was simply crawling over toward my wife while the dog was in her lap and he snapped at the baby. This was the first time that he has bit the baby, but he has growled at him a couple of times in the past when he thought the baby was getting too close to some potential food crumbs.
The dog is a Miniature Pincher who is approximately six years old and has been in our family for about 5 years now. We adopted him from a Min Pin rescue group. He has always been very excitable, and sometimes aggressive. He has bit several friends and extended family members (I can think of 6 off the top of my head). Several times he has actually drawn blood. Usually, he is being protective (or possessive?) of my wife and he kind of snaps at people when this happens. One time he relentlessly went after my wife's uncle and was very scary and aggressive. The dog just came into the room and went after him without warning. He also gets nervous and continuously barks at people when they come over to our house, unless they are brave enough to make an effort to make friends with him. If we lock him in another room, he will bark nonstop until they leave. He also acts the same way toward other dogs. He barks most dogs and other people that he sees when we take him on walks. He listens pretty well when it is just my wife and I (and our baby), but when somebody new is around he is so excited and nervous acting that he simply can't hear us.
We have tried a series of training classes, all the advice we could find in books and online, a spray collar, veterinarian prescribed medication to calm him, and everything else that you could dream of. We thought he would mellow out as he aged, but if anything his aggressive behavior seems to be getting worse.
From a rational perspective, it is obvious that we should get rid of our dog and find a more suitable home for him (i.e. one without young children). However, we see our dog as a member of our family (although, we do not pretend our dog is another person...he is our beloved dog). My wife especially is having a very difficult time thinking about giving our dog away. Is there any hope that we can successfully train our dog, or is this just who he is? To complicate matters, we have a small house and we are having to keep our dog locked up for the most part right now to keep our baby safe. This would make it very difficult to train our dog when he is locked up most of the time.
Thanks again for your advice!
Wildcat